Tips for a successful road trip

With traffic volumes on the increase as Easter weekend approaches, I’m reminded of the various holiday road trips I’ve been on. With half our clan living in the Cape, my family used to visit them once every two year and my parents had to figure out how to keep two kids busy in the car for about eight to ten hours at a time.

My tips for a successful roadtrip? Pack plenty of food, have a list of ways to keep the kids busy and carefully plan your rest stops.

Food

Budgets are getting tighter and everything seems to be more expensive these day. Avoid the temptations and expensive prices of rest stop shops and pack a basket of padkos like ouma used to on those great family trips.

These days picnic food (or padkos) is more than hard-boiled eggs and chicken drumsticks. You can make a range of sandwiches or wraps, a variety of peeled and sliced fruit, a selection of nuts, pretzels and potato chips (or vegetable crisps), meatballs (frikkadelle), cold meats with sliced vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumber) and cheese or even chicken strips with some dip. Make sure everything is kept in airtight containers to avoid spills and soggy food and pack wet wipes or a wet cloth in a bag for sticky hands. A black bag or even a few plastic grocery bags are handy to keep trash in until you can throw it in a bin.

Ways to keep the kids busy

• Pack plenty of story or puzzle books for bookworms.

• Read up on the areas you’ll be travelling through and entertain the kids with facts and stories.

• If your kids have tablets or handheld gaming consoles, make sure they have both educational and fun games loaded and that you have a car charger handy.

• Play traditional games like I spy… where the aim is to get people to guess what object you’re looking at. The first player starts by saying I spy with my little eye something that starts with a C and the rest have a few guesses to try and get the answer. Another great game is to make words from the letters on number plates. YMY can spell ‘yummy’, while CGT can represent your family’s names like Caylie, George and Tania.

• Start a storytelling chain where one person starts a story with a sentence and the others have turns adding a sentence to it. Alternatively, mom and dad can buy audiobooks and play them via the vehicle’s radio.

Rest stops

Stop every two hours or 200 kilometers, we’re advised and it’s a good idea to plan your stops accordingly. On our trips, we mostly stopped every three to four hours and then had snacks, treats or meals at rest stop benches and tables. Research your route and make sure you’ll be able to stop regularly to stretch your legs, take a short rest and fill up the vehicle’s tank.

If you’re travelling with pets, make sure there are pet-friendly stops on your route or allow extra times or stops to cater to their needs.

Not in a hurry? Then work in some tourist spots or sightseeing (like God’s Window, the monuments on Long Tom Pass or Bourke’s Luck Potholes on the Panorama route).

Road stalls can also yield some great home-made products, so take the time to pull over and visit interesting-looking ones.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas for your road trip. So enjoy the travels, time with family and take plenty of photos!

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